The Good Place, season 3 review: Whimsical masterpiece just keeps getting better

The writing is consistently whip-smart in a sitcom deserving of more love

(Justin Lubin/NBC)

As quirky as an oversized cupcake but with a thread of wicked humour, The Good Place has a legitimate claim to be the funniest thing on television. So why isn’t this made-in-heaven pairing of Ted Danson and Kristen Bell, just returned for a third season on Netflix, more widely heralded?

One possible answer is that a metaphysical comedy about the afterlife and the meaning of existence is a tough sell on paper. Add to that the fact show-runner Michael Schur (a producer and writer of the American Office) is quite serious about exploring the ethical dilemmas facing his characters and it’s perhaps little surprise some viewers might be put off before they’ve even given his whimsical masterpiece a whirl.

But does it matter that the set-up is deeply unconventional when the punchlines are as irresistible as they are here? Bell plays a self-centred cynic killed in a freak trolly accident and sent to heaven by accident, with a fantastically flustered Danson as her angelic mentor Michael. Or that, at least, was the initial premise. Series one – cue spoiler klaxon – concluded with the reveal that Bell’s Eleanor Shellstrop was actually in “the Bad Place” all along and that her attempt to pass herself off as pious was Michael’s way of tormenting her.

Such an existential bombshell would have unravelled a lesser comedy. In fact, The Good Place has gone from strength to strength as Michael, in order to cover-up his botched reboot of eternal damnation, entered an alliance with Eleanor and her companions Chidi Anagonye (William Jackson Harper), Tahani Al-Jamil (Jameela Jamil) and Jason Mendoza (Manny Jacinto).

Like Eleanor, they are all horrible people bound for the land of brimstone and pitchforks until Michael intervened and whisked them off to his camouflaged version of hell (which has the creepy gloss of an out-of-town outlet shopping centre). As season two ended, he had arranged for the cringeful quartet to be returned to Earth to prove that, given a second chance, they could turn over a new leaf.

Chidi is back in Australia, where his chronic indecision poses a threat to himself and anyone around him. Meanwhile socialite Tahani – a revelatory turn from former T4 presenter Jamil – has renounced her life of privilege and donated all her worldly possession to Good Will (her nickname for Prince William). And transcendentally dim part-time DJ Jason is once more in Florida, having been rescued by Michael from a bank heist that involved being locked inside a vault and trying to breathe through a snorkel. Can Michael bring these self-absorbed misanthropes together and teach them how to be better people?

With so many surrealistic balls in the air, The Good Place often feels as if it is just one bad joke away from collapsing in on itself. Yet the writing is consistently whip-smart and the cast deliver their lines in a machine-gun rat-tat-tat of arched eyebrows and dead-pan asides (Bell can raise a laugh simply by wrinkling her nose or harrumphing a millisecond later than you expect). Even the stuff that shouldn’t work – Ted Danson’s Australian terrible accent, for instance – is milked for self-knowing chuckles.

Underneath it all, Schur is attempting a semi-profound inquiry into whether it is possible to be truly selfless and empathic towards others. But couched in gale-force winks and nudges, the subtext never tips into worthiness or sentimentality. The Good Place just keeps getting better – and your better angels will thank you for showing it the love it deserves.

The Good Place season 3 continues on Netflix every Friday.